
COLA has expanded its team of accreditation professionals to include three additional full-time surveyors, bringing its total number of field surveyors to 28, the most COLA has ever had.
“These new COLA employees, like their fellow colleagues in the field, bring extensive educational credentials, laboratory experience and the hands-on expertise needed to meet COLA’s mission of promoting patient safety through laboratory excellence,” said COLA Chief Executive Officer Douglas Beigel. “They join a highly experienced staff that is committed to meeting the needs of the clinical laboratory community, by working closely with laboratories as a trusted expert resource.”
The new employees include Teresa Black, BS, MT (ASCP), Elizabeth Viola-Knowles, BS, MT (ASCP), and Greg Mock, BS, MS, MT (ASCP).
Black most recently was the Senior Technologist in the Coagulation Laboratory at Orlando Regional Healthcare, where she performed all routine and special coagulation testing, oversaw quality control and instrument maintenance, and managed coagulation policies. Prior to Orlando Regional Health, she was Laboratory Supervisor/International Project Manager at Cryobanks International, where she supervised the Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Laboratory. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from Governors State University in University Park, IL, and a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. In addition to her ASCP accreditation, she is a Licensed Clinical Laboratory Supervisor in the State of Florida and a Licensed Medical Technology Professional in the State of Tennessee. She resides in Longwood, FL.
Bostonian Viola-Knowles joins COLA from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, where she was a Medical Technologist II in the Hematology Core Laboratory, with responsibility for preparing slides and performing Histological special stains for bone marrow evaluations, manual counts for WBC, PLT, blood and other fluids, and performing differentials on abnormal smears. Prior to that, she worked at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, MA, where she was the Laboratory Evening Coordinator, and also held several other lab management and Medical Technician positions in Massachusetts. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rivier College, in Nashua, NH.
Mock most recently was Assistant Manager at Biolife (Baxter) Plasma Services in Elkhart, IN, where he was responsible for technical support and regulatory compliance for the plasma center. He previously was the Laboratory Manager at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, IN and, before that, was a Laboratory Department Head at Berrien General Hospital, Berrien Center, MI. He also served as a state surveyor in Indiana for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mock has a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from Western Kentucky University, and a Master’s degree in Administration from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN. He has completed Advanced Surveyor Training by CMS. He resides in South Bend, IN.